Noise suppressors or silencers for firearms, including rifles and handguns, are well known and have been used for reducing recoil effects, muzzle flash, and the sound signature of a host firearm, and thus offer many advantages to the user. For example, muzzle flashes can be harmful to the user's night vision and can also provide a visual cue as to the location of the person discharging a firearm. Likewise, the sound or report upon firing a firearm also can provide an audible cue to the location of a shooter and further can cause significant harm to the shooter's hearing. Silencers have been developed to substantially reduce these concerns.
There are numerous factors that can affect the performance of a silencer. For example, a silencer with an extended length may contain more baffles than a relatively shorter silencer and thus may be more effective at substantially reducing recoil effects, muzzle flash, and the sound signature of a host firearm. However, such an extended length silencer generally makes the host firearm longer, and, as a consequence, heavier and more cumbersome, than shorter silencers. Therefore, there are situations where a relatively shorter silencer may be preferred or needed over a relatively long silencer, and vice versa.